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The Pickup Place / Re: is my 5 way switch fubar?

« on: April 29, 2020, 11:24:27 AM »

Stephan - Thanks for the feedback and assistance.  I won't be trying to get at the red wire, it's just in way too compromising of a position.  Had it been the black wire, I am confident I could have unraveled to find break and re-attached, but that red wire being under the bobbin and being the start or the wire with no clear sight into it without even further pickup disassembly - who knows how far into the wind it has gone.  Could even be attached still (has to be since signal comes out) but likely as you say some of the insulation has worn and it is making contact elsewhere or is broken somewhere else deep within the coil and I'm getting sound due to all of the contact of wire, overall.

Truly a mind blowingly baffling situation that BOTH pickups have a red/black coil issue - never seen anything quite like it  I now need to determine $45 per coil rewind is worth it...  They are factory PAF PRO from a 1998 Ibanez in the pink color.

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The Pickup Place / Re: is my 5 way switch fubar?

« on: April 27, 2020, 12:17:22 PM »

Yes, black/white is very well soldered, as is green and bare.  All very, very clean newly stripped back, rosin core solder, flux, all that.  I have soldered maybe 600 pickups in my life so yes, I'm confident they are wired right.  =)

Measuring RED to BLACK AND WHITE goes banana's on meter.  6.5 MEGA OHM reading and climbs up...  super funky.

black/white to green instant read of 4.3k.

measuring between red and green/bare it is in the MEGA OHMS and just keeps climbing up , up , up.

I VERY CAREFULLY with the neck humbucker removed the tape around the coil that the red wire comes from and I can see RED WIRE goes UNDER the bobbin.  the BLACK wire I can actually see the MICRO THIN human hair strand wrapped around the then much thicker white wire which turns into black.  IF it was the BLACK wire that had the issue I'm sure I could fix it, but the RED WIRE going under the bobbin I cannot see the START of that wire as plainal as I can see whre the BLACk wire is.

I have to assume the RED WIRE is what STARTS the wind, going under the bobbin as it is, and then BLACK wire is that same wire that stops the winding?  The red wire giving only this crazy MEGA OHM reading and still working is becasue the wire itself is just making so much contact with all of the wire and wingdings that wrap around that it is still able to produce sound?  Clearly there has to be a break somewhere in there, but yet it is able to produce sound when I take the red lead as hot out so the lead that is the red wire itself is still working but just nto FULLY CONNECTED all the way through its winding?  That is the only thing that makes any sense to me, logically.

100% for certain BOTH of these pickups have OPEN RESISTANCE or an OPEN COIL at the red wire.  As totally impossible as it seems, to have TWO pickups like in this in same guitar, this is absolutely what is going on.  There is no other explanation.

Am I looking at sending these off for a REWIND?  If so, who do you trust and recommend that won't cost me an arm and a leg.  Seeing as used pickups are anywhere int he $30 to $50 range not sure if it makes sense to spend a lot of money on rewinds.  Not like these are 1950's mega rare dealio's.

thanks so much

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The Pickup Place / Re: is my 5 way switch fubar?

« on: April 24, 2020, 09:25:06 PM »

OK I am SERIOUSLY baffled right now.

I have here 2 pink and faded PAF PRO's from my 1998 JEM Floral.

I have removed the pickups from the guitar and have them on my bench. 

I re-cut the leads, nice and clean.  Green/bare soldered together, white/black soldered together and the red lead by itself.

Bridge pickup.  I put my black probe to the green/bare ground and red probe to the red pickup wire. NOTHING ON METER.  Touching black/white series link I get instant meter read of 4.64k ohm.
Neck pickup.  Same as above, touching red pickup wire = NOTHING ON METER.  black/white series link, instant meter reading of 4.38k

I thought, ok maybe my meter is being weird.  I grabbed a second meter, exactly same results.

Then I thought, hmm. let me try a totally different pickup.  Grabbed a random Duncan I had laying about, instant meter read of 16K.

These pickups were working in the guitar, but this all started with the super weird 515K reading that started this thread.  While on the bench I plugged a guitar cable into my crappy bench amp, held each pickup ground to the sleeve and red to tip and tapped the pickups with screwdriver, loud and full sound comes out of each one, like how a full normal pickup would sound when testing.

How are these pickups WORKING but not giving ANY READING other than the series link?  what in the WORLD??

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The Pickup Place / Re: is my 5 way switch fubar?

« on: April 24, 2020, 11:34:41 AM »

It is just a VOL/TONE setup but the TONE pot is out of the chain.  I ordered a new 5 way CRL USA just to be safe but will look later to see if there is a whacky resistor wired somewhere.  prior owner defiled the electronics and really did some goofy sh*t.

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The Pickup Place / is my 5 way switch fubar?

« on: April 23, 2020, 05:50:18 PM »

So a trick I learned a long time ago is to put an ohm meter on the end of the guitar cable and go thru the toggle to learn the ohm rating for the pickups with volume maxed out - helpful in troubleshooting etc.  You will see like 17k, 5k, 5k, 5k, 13k on a 5 way with decently hot pickups that auto split in 2 and 4 and a single in middle.

So I have an older guitar HSH with a 5 way and Paf pro, unknown single, paf pro.  When I do the ohm trick, bridge shows 515k, then 4k, 5k, 4k, and then 512k at neck.  What in the world?  I went through all other gutiars and they give PROPER readings, ie, the kohm rating of their installed pickups.

Why would this guitar show 500k+ at neck and bridge, isntead of the 8-10k they should report for PAF's??

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The Pickup Place / Re: Mega drive in bridge, what in neck?

« on: April 23, 2020, 05:46:23 PM »

i have a mega drive in bridge, evolution middle sc, and a paf pro in neck of one of my main rg550's.. (desert sun yellow and PINK pikcups of course).  sounds delicious

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The Pickup Place / Re: help again with noise cancelling suhr ssv plus ibanez s1

« on: September 30, 2019, 09:16:30 PM »

Thank u.  I will give that a go!

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The Pickup Place / help again with noise cancelling suhr ssv plus ibanez s1

« on: September 29, 2019, 11:13:03 PM »

rg550 with a fender 5 way.  dominion neck, ibanez s1 middle single coil, suhr ssv bridge.

Every position is perfect but the one combining the bridge and middle.  it is not hum cancelling but the position combing neck and middle is.   phase is good, its just not hum cancelling when bridge+mid are on.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion Fast Track 1

« on: February 25, 2019, 12:16:31 AM »

Never had a PATB-2 but it cannot be much louder than a Super Distortion or a Lawrence L-500XL.

Correct. It has a fairly congested/compressed quality that makes it sound a little more subdued that one might expect from how it’s named.

I replaced my superswitch and this is all working now.

Darth:

This particular PATB-2 is an older one with 2BJ sticker on bottom and reads 21.6k and to me is quite hot.  It is a very tight pickup and great for tight riffery and chunks, there is no flub there and in a neck thru usa jackson it's great.

I tried a super distortion and just did not get on with it at all.  Having had a super D and the pat2b in same guitar, i felt the patb2 was miles hotter and chunkier.  Do you find it to be similar to the pat2b?

XL500 I have not played since 1993 and that was long before my chops are what they are now so it's been too long to comment!

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The Pickup Place / Re: Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion Fast Track 1

« on: February 15, 2019, 07:03:22 PM »

how do i do the magnet test on the rail pickup like that?  its a fast track 1 which has the two blades very close to each other.

curiously... if i wanted to completely reverse everything about how that middle pickup is wired, using the attached diagram from first post, how do I need to wire it?  If i wanted the entire everything to be BACKWARDS from what it is currently?

the darn thing is not noise cancelling in #4 or in #2.  And to make stuff funkier, i put in an air norton bridge last night, wired exactly as diagram says, and #4 is not noise cancelling.... wondering if the fast track 1 was somehow reversed by factory and i just never knew it?

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The Pickup Place / Re: Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion Fast Track 1

« on: February 14, 2019, 08:18:37 PM »

Tried it both ways, the noise is still there in #4.  Is it possible that the split duncan is just so loud it overpowers the ability to hum cancel when split with another pup?  my ibanez 550 with megadrive/evo single/paf pro is dead quiet in positions 2 and 4 and sounds killer.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion Fast Track 1

« on: February 13, 2019, 08:19:09 PM »

In each case, it was not hum cancelling. 

I at first wired Duncan normally using red/white as split, black for hot and green/bare to ground.  Noise in position #4 combined with the split FT1 middle.  This made the top coil of Duncan hot when split.

I then switched the duncan to be black & green split, red for hot and white/bare to ground.  Again not noise cancelling in #4 and this wiring made the bottom coil hot when split.

I think it is more hollow sounding in current wiring vs the first wiring.  Neither sounded good.

If it helps, this is what the meter shows at each position:

5.  20.26k (duncan patb2)
4. 2.55k
3. 5.66k (fast track 1)
2. 2.26k
1. 12.79k (this is a duncan stk-s1n stack)

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The Pickup Place / Duncan Parallel Axis Distortion Fast Track 1

« on: February 12, 2019, 10:30:22 PM »

Back again with an issue I can't solve. 
USA Jackson SL1 using a super switch. 
Bridge is a PATB-2 Duncan distortion parallel axis HB.
Middle is a Fast Track 1.  Using the attached diagram.

The first go round was using the attached diagram but switching the wires for Duncan code, of course.  This made the top coil hot when split.

The second go around was wiring Duncan red hot, white ground, black & green split.  This made bottom coil hot when split.

No matter what, I cannot get position #4 (split bridge and split middle) to be hum cancelling.

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The Pickup Place / Re: FYI: ISCV2 Dimarzio Evolution Single

« on: February 02, 2019, 02:21:34 PM »

If it helps anyone, I bought a new ISCV2 and combined it with a MEGADRIVE and a PAF PRO in an HSH Rg-550 and it makes positions 2 and 4 totally quiet and sounds great.  I am using a CRL USA 5 way and followed the main diagram dimarzio will give you if you tell them you want 2 and 4 hum cancelling.  Easiest wiring I've done and the switch is 10 bux from sigler.

ALSO any of the colored covers from Dimarzio in their DM2001 kit will fit that EVO pickup perfectly.  I'm a huge ibanez nerd and like the desert sun yellow and pink pickup look.

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The Pickup Place / Re: Positions 2 and 4 with H S H.

« on: February 02, 2019, 02:17:09 PM »

Stephan - Thank you so much for your help.  I learned a lot from you and sincerely appreciate the time and wisdom bestowed upon me. I am now much better equipped to troubleshoot these phase issues and it has already paid dividends when I fixed one of my #2 positions which is now in phase and sounds great.

I also noticed when using my little .87 cent compass from China on eBay how (not sure if this is a RULE) every pickup I test which has the SCREW POLES on bottom has NORTH going up on compass, and when i test pups that have SLUG POLES on bottom it has the SOUTH going up on compass.  I assume this is how, for example, a JB bridge and a 59 neck in an HH guitar have the correct phasing when in middle position of a 3 way toggle?  If one were to flip one of the pickups upside down it would be out of phase and sound super thin when combined?

I am curious about one other thing going back to the 2 and 4 positions again...  It seems that some of my guitars that are HSH are nearly dead silent in 2 and 4 when combining a true single with a split humbucker where others are actually still slightly noisy in those positions, though nowhere near as nasty as the true single coil in position 3.  This must be a result of how hot each humbucker is that is combining with the single coil?

I still would be curious to know if there is a 'generic' 2 wire true single coil out there that will work with dimarzio's and be noise free in 2 and 4?  I know the ISCV2 Evolution works perfectly but at $50 a shot for a pickup I never actually play, I was hoping to find a turd pickup for $10 or $15 that would accomplish task.

Thanks!!